Chris Nelson continues to be the bane of the Clippers existence. Friday night he homered and doubled, driving in two runs and scoring two more as the Columbus Clippers (24-29) dropped the series opener 5-3 to the Louisville Bats (26-28) on Friday night at Huntington Park, which was their third loss in a row and 13th of their last 17.

In today’s edition of Minor Happenings, the IBI's Tony Lastoria takes a look at the emergence of Joseph Colon as a starting pitching prospect for the Indians, the significant strides he has made with his stuff over the past year and what his future holds with the Indians. He also looks at the good play of Tyler Holt and his role in the organization, provides a ton of comments from the front office on players at High-A Carolina and Low-A Lake County, and provides lots of insight, news and analysis on players such as Roberto Perez, D.J. Brown, Eric Haase, Cody Anderson, Ryan Merritt, Grant Fink and others.

It was a tale of two offensive explosions Thursday night. On one hand, the Akron RubberDucks erupted for 16 runs, led by a stellar performance from Bryson Myles. On the other hand, the Columbus Clippers allowed 18 runs, capped off by turning to Elliot Johnson to close out the game on the mound. Elsewhere, Adam Plutko made his Carolina League debut, Lake County *only* allowed eight runs (breaking the mold set by Akron and Columbus), and much more. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks it all down and takes you Around the Farm.

Some days a lineup can seem like they can hit anything and everything. That feeling must not be common for the last-place Charlotte Knights (18-35), but they certainly had a night to remember as they recorded 20 hits in an 18-9 victory over the Columbus Clippers (24-28)

Tracking Jesus Aguilar throughout the minor league system it appeared that he had two tangible skills worth monitoring, on-base ability and power, which if developed would carry him to the big leagues. He had a big jump in his power numbers early this season with a transition to Huntington Park in Columbus, and the IBI's Michael Hattery offers up a case study as to why we need to take offensive performances in Columbus (and Akron) with a grain of salt.

With the month of June approaching, it is likely the time worthy players will start earning promotions to the next level. Adam Plutko started the process, moving from Lake County to Carolina, but a few others look primed to make jumps of their own. Lake County infielder Paul Hendrix is one, as he continues to rake, as is fellow Captain Jordan Milbrath. However, Wednesday's headliner, Cole Sulser, is not as close to a promotion as Hendrix or Milbrath, but the right-hander was impressive in his own right. Join Jim Piascik as he analyzes Sulser's turnaround and much more as he takes you Around the Farm.

Free baseball was played at Huntington Park Wednesday morning as the Clippers once again went into extra innings with the Charlotte Knights. With no end in sight southpaw Nick Hagadone took over in tenth – letting up a big fly over the left field wall for a three-run homer, putting the Knights up 5-2. The Clippers were unable to dig themselves out of Hagadone's hole and fell to Charlotte for the first time the series.

Today is the first “stock watch” of the 2014 season for players in the Indians’ minor league system. This report is a snapshot of a few players up and down the system and how their value may be decreasing or increasing as prospects. The IBI's Tony Lastoria reviews over 20 performances to date from Columbus to Lake County and provides details as to whose prospect stock is falling, improving, or has not changed. Players reviewed include Roberto Perez, Giovanny Urshela, Austin Adams, Jordan Smith, Joseph Colon, Tyler Sturdevant, Ryan Merritt, Louis Head, Eric Haase, Robbie Aviles and many others.

The Columbus Clippers have been run deficient over the last couple of weeks, but they took care of that notion in the first inning of Tuesday night’s 8-6 win over the Charlotte Knights at Huntington Park in front of 7,858 in attendance.

Before right-hander Austin Adams had surgery on his throwing shoulder in May 2012, he was riding the crest of the wave. Over the 2010 and 2011 seasons, Adams threw 243 strikeouts in 248 innings in Single-A and Double-A. Then an injury came, threatening to make him another hurler derailed by the treatment table. But Adams hasn’t let that happen. The IBI's Grant Miller recently sat down with the talented righty to talk about his return from injury and recent success.

While the Charlotte Knights had a 3-2 lead going into the ninth inning, the Columbus Clippers managed to extend the game, before walking off in the bottom of the 12th. Elliot Johnson singled to center field to score Luke Carlin and end the game in the third inning of extra play. Tyler Cloyd ended with the no decision, but pitched a strong game of six innings, six hits, two runs and just one walk compared to four strikeouts.

The Clippers dropped the final two games in Syracuse, but ultimately won the season series against the Chiefs taking five of eight. The Clippers finished the road trip taking only two of eight games. Danny Salazar made his return to the Clippers a forgettable one, lasting just 2.2 innings and 70 pitches where he gave up five runs on six hits and three walks and only struck out one. Join Michael Rich and go Sailing with the Clippers.

It takes a lot to shake a team – or a player – out of a slump. The most important ingredients in doing so are solid defense and consistent hitting. To get anywhere, there must be at least one of those two. The Columbus Clippers (22-26) are a team in a slump, and the absence of both those traits led to a 5-1 loss against the Durham Bulls (30-21) on Sunday evening.

The WAR Room is back again, bringing you the 2014 advanced stats for every Cleveland minor leaguer. After looking at the pitchers last week, today we focus on the hitters. It is still early enough that there is some noise in the numbers, but at this point in the season, we are starting to see some interesting trends emerge. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks down the continuing success of Francisco Lindor and Paul Hendrix, the Jose Ramirez experience in Columbus, and much more.

The Columbus Clippers took the on the Durham Bulls Saturday, but lost 5-2 after taking a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning. Two fourth-inning runs were all that Columbus could muster on five total hits. Durham racked up seven hits and scored four runs between the fifth and eighth innings to take the win.

The way it’s going for the Columbus Clippers (22-24) right now – if it’s not one thing it’s another. Lately, on night’s they can’t pitch, they hit. On Friday night, they could muster only a single run on a ground out in the first inning by Jason Kipnis. The Durham Bulls (28-21) took the second game of this series, and their fourth in a row over the Clippers by a score of 3-1 in front of 9,506 in attendance at Huntington Park.

In today's massive-sized Minor Happenings that is well over 5000 words, the IBI's Tony Lastoria takes a look at how outfielder Tyler Naquin continues to improve every area of his game and really has just one question mark remaining and how he is working to answer that. He also provides a ton of quotes from Ross Atkins on players like Adam Plutko, Anthony Gallas, Francisco Lindor and others, takes a look at second baseman Claudio Bautista and why he is a prospect to keep an eye on, provides details into Robbie Aviles’ turnaround this season, and provides lots of news, insight and analysis on players like Frank Herrmann, Gabriel Arias, LeVon Washington, Dorssys Paulino and others.

The Columbus Clippers were on national television Thursday night, but the best story on the farm came from Ryan Merritt. The left-hander continued to impress in 2014 as he dominated in a unique way given the trends of today's game. In addition to Merritt, Lake County starter Dace Kime furthered his case that his early struggles are behind him, the Columbus bullpen essentially had open tryouts for the majors, Anthony Santander got two-thirds of Lake County's hits (not in a good way), and much more. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks it all down and takes you Around the Farm.

Comebacks can make for exciting games, but they also make life difficult for the teams trying to complete them. The Columbus Clippers (22-23) came from behind not once, but twice on Thursday night, but they fell one comeback short in a 7-5 loss to the Durham Bulls (27-21) at Huntington Park.

The Columbus Clippers (22-22) hung in there, but ultimately fell in the final game of the road trip, losing to the Syracuse Chiefs (23-22) 5-3 at NBT Bank Stadium. The two teams split the four-game set, but the Clippers walk away having taken five of eight to win the season series.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!